Cultivating a scholarly community of practice
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Ellery, Karen, Olvitt, Lausanne L, Schudel, Ingrid J, O'Donoghue, Rob B
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ellery, Karen , Olvitt, Lausanne L , Schudel, Ingrid J , O'Donoghue, Rob B
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69777 , vital:29579 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC15102
- Description: In the field of Environment and Sustainability Education we are seeking ways of developing our teaching and supervision practices to enable social changes in a rapidly transforming field of practice where global issues of truth, judgement, justice and sustainability define our engagements with the public good. This article explores the process of cultivating a scholarly community of practice as a model of supervision that not only engages scholars in an intellectual community oriented towards socio-ecological transformation, but also extends and enhances dialogue with individuals on the technical and theoretical aspects of their postgraduate studies.
- Full Text: false
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Ellery, Karen , Olvitt, Lausanne L , Schudel, Ingrid J , O'Donoghue, Rob B
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/69777 , vital:29579 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC15102
- Description: In the field of Environment and Sustainability Education we are seeking ways of developing our teaching and supervision practices to enable social changes in a rapidly transforming field of practice where global issues of truth, judgement, justice and sustainability define our engagements with the public good. This article explores the process of cultivating a scholarly community of practice as a model of supervision that not only engages scholars in an intellectual community oriented towards socio-ecological transformation, but also extends and enhances dialogue with individuals on the technical and theoretical aspects of their postgraduate studies.
- Full Text: false
Education for Sustainable Development and retention: unravelling a research agenda
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127192 , vital:35975 , https://10.1007/s11159-010-9165-9
- Description: This paper considers the question of what education for sustainable development (ESD) research might signify when linked to the concept of “retention”, and how this relation (ESD and retention) might be researched. It considers two different perspectives on retention, as revealed through educational research trajectories, drawing on existing research and case studies. Firstly, it discusses an ESD research agenda that documents retention by focusing on the issue of keeping children in schools. This research agenda is typical of the existing discourses surrounding Education for All (EFA). It then discusses a related ESD research agenda that focuses more on the pedagogical and curricular aspects of retention, as this provides for a deeper understanding of how ESD can contribute to improving the quality of teaching and learning within a wider EFA retention agenda.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2010
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127192 , vital:35975 , https://10.1007/s11159-010-9165-9
- Description: This paper considers the question of what education for sustainable development (ESD) research might signify when linked to the concept of “retention”, and how this relation (ESD and retention) might be researched. It considers two different perspectives on retention, as revealed through educational research trajectories, drawing on existing research and case studies. Firstly, it discusses an ESD research agenda that documents retention by focusing on the issue of keeping children in schools. This research agenda is typical of the existing discourses surrounding Education for All (EFA). It then discusses a related ESD research agenda that focuses more on the pedagogical and curricular aspects of retention, as this provides for a deeper understanding of how ESD can contribute to improving the quality of teaching and learning within a wider EFA retention agenda.
- Full Text:
The Makana Regional Centre of expertise: Experiments in social learning
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, O'Donoghue, Rob B, Wilmot, P Dianne
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Wilmot, P Dianne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182634 , vital:43849 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820900400114"
- Description: This article deliberates the possibilities for Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) to become ‘experiments’ in social learning. The purpose of the article is to advance the broader research agenda of RCEs through reflection on the empirical research agenda of one RCE, Makana RCE in South Africa. As such it opens questions on how we might see RCE’s as morphogenic social learning processes (i.e., processes of social change). It provides an oversight of the key issues, educational foci and developing areas of engagement in the Makana RCE. These provide an overview of the ‘starting points’ for social learning in the Makana RCE. A model of social learning is also provided which seeks to engage the ecocultural nature of sustainability practices in the Makana RCE.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Wilmot, P Dianne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182634 , vital:43849 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820900400114"
- Description: This article deliberates the possibilities for Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) to become ‘experiments’ in social learning. The purpose of the article is to advance the broader research agenda of RCEs through reflection on the empirical research agenda of one RCE, Makana RCE in South Africa. As such it opens questions on how we might see RCE’s as morphogenic social learning processes (i.e., processes of social change). It provides an oversight of the key issues, educational foci and developing areas of engagement in the Makana RCE. These provide an overview of the ‘starting points’ for social learning in the Makana RCE. A model of social learning is also provided which seeks to engage the ecocultural nature of sustainability practices in the Makana RCE.
- Full Text:
The Scope of Teaching and Learning in Environmental Education
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183037 , vital:43906 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/172809"
- Description: Environmental Education involves a variety of teaching and learning processes which are diversely situated in a range of social and educational contexts. The diversity of scope is an interesting 'contour' of a field like environmental education. Contemporary environmental sciences and complexity studies draw our attention to an ever-changing world and to increasingly complex social-ecological issues, patterns and risks that require our attention. These too influence the scope of environmental education teaching and learning processes. This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education provides a window through which we may see some of the scope of environmental education activities, research questions, learning and teaching settings, and educational activity. It provides insight into the range of research methodologies that are being deployed to investigate the educational processes that are needed for re-orientation towards sustainability, equity, adaptability and transformation at the people-environment interface.
- Full Text: false
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183037 , vital:43906 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/172809"
- Description: Environmental Education involves a variety of teaching and learning processes which are diversely situated in a range of social and educational contexts. The diversity of scope is an interesting 'contour' of a field like environmental education. Contemporary environmental sciences and complexity studies draw our attention to an ever-changing world and to increasingly complex social-ecological issues, patterns and risks that require our attention. These too influence the scope of environmental education teaching and learning processes. This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education provides a window through which we may see some of the scope of environmental education activities, research questions, learning and teaching settings, and educational activity. It provides insight into the range of research methodologies that are being deployed to investigate the educational processes that are needed for re-orientation towards sustainability, equity, adaptability and transformation at the people-environment interface.
- Full Text: false
Editorial: environmental-education research in the year of COP 15
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Kronlid, David O
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Kronlid, David O
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67356 , vital:29080 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122784
- Description: publisher version , Introduction: This year there has literally been a cacophony surrounding the implications of climate change, as the world geared up for the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen, where it was expected that the largest ever gathering of world leaders would sign binding agreements to reduce carbon emissions to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 2⁰C. As we make the final contributions to the refinement of this editorial, late in December 2009, it is concerning to note that this did not happen, that civil society voices were marginalised at the COP 15 and that there has been little progress on a socially just and ecologically sound global climate change deal. The stark reality remains that developing countries – southern African countries in particular – remain most vulnerable to the risks associated with global climate change. Havnevik (2007) stated a while ago that: The ways in which poverty, consumption and climate change are addressed, tend to blur historical, structural and power features underlying global inequalities. This makes possible the focus on market forces, such as carbon trading, to resolve the problems. However, these market solutions will not suffice, and may only delay a real solution, which will then have to be developed in a situation of more acute global social injustice and possibly deeper conflicts … Issues related to inequality, energy and climate are of a global character: there is no longer one solution for the South and one for the North. (18,19) So where does the current state of climate change and the political failures surrounding responses to climate change leave education research in developing and developed nations? What are the implications for environmental education researchers in southern Africa and elsewhere? These are some of the questions pondered in this edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE). As one of us (Kronlid) reflects in a Think Piece in this journal: ‘the world is one and many and … the complexities associated with climate change means that we have a shared global systematic problem manifested in a myriad different concrete ways in people’s everyday life throughout the globe. We need many different kinds and modes of climate change education research’ (Kronlid, this edition).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Kronlid, David O
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67356 , vital:29080 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122784
- Description: publisher version , Introduction: This year there has literally been a cacophony surrounding the implications of climate change, as the world geared up for the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen, where it was expected that the largest ever gathering of world leaders would sign binding agreements to reduce carbon emissions to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 2⁰C. As we make the final contributions to the refinement of this editorial, late in December 2009, it is concerning to note that this did not happen, that civil society voices were marginalised at the COP 15 and that there has been little progress on a socially just and ecologically sound global climate change deal. The stark reality remains that developing countries – southern African countries in particular – remain most vulnerable to the risks associated with global climate change. Havnevik (2007) stated a while ago that: The ways in which poverty, consumption and climate change are addressed, tend to blur historical, structural and power features underlying global inequalities. This makes possible the focus on market forces, such as carbon trading, to resolve the problems. However, these market solutions will not suffice, and may only delay a real solution, which will then have to be developed in a situation of more acute global social injustice and possibly deeper conflicts … Issues related to inequality, energy and climate are of a global character: there is no longer one solution for the South and one for the North. (18,19) So where does the current state of climate change and the political failures surrounding responses to climate change leave education research in developing and developed nations? What are the implications for environmental education researchers in southern Africa and elsewhere? These are some of the questions pondered in this edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE). As one of us (Kronlid) reflects in a Think Piece in this journal: ‘the world is one and many and … the complexities associated with climate change means that we have a shared global systematic problem manifested in a myriad different concrete ways in people’s everyday life throughout the globe. We need many different kinds and modes of climate change education research’ (Kronlid, this edition).
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How many declarations do we need?: Inside the drafting of the Bonn Declaration on education for sustainable development
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182522 , vital:43837 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820900300217"
- Description: The Bonn Declaration, approved by the 900 participants at the UNESCO World Conference on Sustainable Development, differs from other conference declarations in that it is the first declaration to deal exclusively with education for sustainable development. It received input from official State representatives and, perhaps because of that, it is somewhat less provocative than some nongovernmental or university-sponsored declarations. Also, it actually sets out, with some authority, an agenda for UNESCO, the manager of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Though some may question the usefulness of conference declarations, history shows that such declarations do have at least some guiding power in that they provide common starting points for deliberation on possible changes at national and international levels.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182522 , vital:43837 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820900300217"
- Description: The Bonn Declaration, approved by the 900 participants at the UNESCO World Conference on Sustainable Development, differs from other conference declarations in that it is the first declaration to deal exclusively with education for sustainable development. It received input from official State representatives and, perhaps because of that, it is somewhat less provocative than some nongovernmental or university-sponsored declarations. Also, it actually sets out, with some authority, an agenda for UNESCO, the manager of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Though some may question the usefulness of conference declarations, history shows that such declarations do have at least some guiding power in that they provide common starting points for deliberation on possible changes at national and international levels.
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Sigtuna Think Piece 8: Piecing together conceptual framings for climate change education research in southern African contexts
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67378 , vital:29082 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122808
- Description: publisher version , This think piece considers a range of theoretical and conceptual tools that may assist with the emergence of a research agenda for climate change in education. It considers the conditions that are created by climate change in and for southern African contexts, and then deliberates which contextually related theoretical tools may be useful to frame research questions for climate change education. I consider the educational research implications of adaptation practices, reflexive justice and agency, reflexivity and capability, noting that a climate change education research agenda, not different to a wider reflexive environmental education research agenda dealing with transformative praxis in southern Africa, is essentially a sociologically and historically emergent ‘researching with’ agenda, and is in effect a social learning process. In putting together these conceptual framings for a climate change research agenda in southern Africa, I am interested in exploring how participatory social learning research may strengthen agency and reflexivity (development of capabilities) in response to socio-ecological conditions.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67378 , vital:29082 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122808
- Description: publisher version , This think piece considers a range of theoretical and conceptual tools that may assist with the emergence of a research agenda for climate change in education. It considers the conditions that are created by climate change in and for southern African contexts, and then deliberates which contextually related theoretical tools may be useful to frame research questions for climate change education. I consider the educational research implications of adaptation practices, reflexive justice and agency, reflexivity and capability, noting that a climate change education research agenda, not different to a wider reflexive environmental education research agenda dealing with transformative praxis in southern Africa, is essentially a sociologically and historically emergent ‘researching with’ agenda, and is in effect a social learning process. In putting together these conceptual framings for a climate change research agenda in southern Africa, I am interested in exploring how participatory social learning research may strengthen agency and reflexivity (development of capabilities) in response to socio-ecological conditions.
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Utopianism and educational processes in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/184756 , vital:44269 , xlink:href="https://cjee.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/866"
- Description: Recent international policy literature on Education for Sustainable Development puts forward utopian concepts of sustainable development and transformed learning as objects for educational thinking and practice. This paper, drawing on three illustrative educational investigations with youth in a South African context, critically examines how we might engage with utopian concepts such as those put forward in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It incorporates an engagement with other related utopian concepts such as democracy and social justice, which feature strongly in post-apartheid societal reconstruction in South Africa. The paper argues that if we are to avoid valuable utopian concepts such as democracy, sustainability, and social justice from becoming doxic knowledge, a reflexive realist orientation might best guide our educational engagements with such concepts. Such an approach to utopianism would take account of contextual realities and situated learning processes, and foster a creativity of action that is constructivist in nature, but not relativist.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/184756 , vital:44269 , xlink:href="https://cjee.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/866"
- Description: Recent international policy literature on Education for Sustainable Development puts forward utopian concepts of sustainable development and transformed learning as objects for educational thinking and practice. This paper, drawing on three illustrative educational investigations with youth in a South African context, critically examines how we might engage with utopian concepts such as those put forward in the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. It incorporates an engagement with other related utopian concepts such as democracy and social justice, which feature strongly in post-apartheid societal reconstruction in South Africa. The paper argues that if we are to avoid valuable utopian concepts such as democracy, sustainability, and social justice from becoming doxic knowledge, a reflexive realist orientation might best guide our educational engagements with such concepts. Such an approach to utopianism would take account of contextual realities and situated learning processes, and foster a creativity of action that is constructivist in nature, but not relativist.
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Why ontology matters to reviewing environmental education
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182646 , vital:43850 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620902807550"
- Description: This paper responds to a keynote paper presented by William Scott at the 2007 World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa. The keynote address reviewed 30 years of environmental education research. In this response to William Scott's paper I contemplate the way in which environmental education research may enable reflexivity in modernity and develop knowledge that can serve as cultural mediator between individual and society. Through emphasizing ontology, I consider the reality of global knowledge production in relation to the way in which ontology may influence the reasons how and why we come to do particular forms of research, providing an ontological reference for the ever‐expanding pluralism that characterizes the field of environmental education research. The paper comments on various aspects of the Scott paper, but presents an argument for not only valuing pluralism, methodological experimentation and ‘reaching out’, but for embracing the cosmopolitan implications of wider ontological referents of environmental concerns in environmental education research. The paper argues that research in environmental education ought to become ontologically defensible at both local and global scales.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182646 , vital:43850 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620902807550"
- Description: This paper responds to a keynote paper presented by William Scott at the 2007 World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa. The keynote address reviewed 30 years of environmental education research. In this response to William Scott's paper I contemplate the way in which environmental education research may enable reflexivity in modernity and develop knowledge that can serve as cultural mediator between individual and society. Through emphasizing ontology, I consider the reality of global knowledge production in relation to the way in which ontology may influence the reasons how and why we come to do particular forms of research, providing an ontological reference for the ever‐expanding pluralism that characterizes the field of environmental education research. The paper comments on various aspects of the Scott paper, but presents an argument for not only valuing pluralism, methodological experimentation and ‘reaching out’, but for embracing the cosmopolitan implications of wider ontological referents of environmental concerns in environmental education research. The paper argues that research in environmental education ought to become ontologically defensible at both local and global scales.
- Full Text:
Environmental Education and Educational Quality and Relevance-Opening the debate
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182668 , vital:43852 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122756"
- Description: This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE) tackles a critical issue being debated across the world today, namely the question of educational quality and relevance. In 2005 the UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report entitled Education for All: The Quality Imperative (UNESCO, 2004) was published. This global monitoring report drew attention to issues of educational quality, and raised the problem that physical access to education does not necessarily lead to epistemological access to knowledge or to relevant education being offered to learners. In the foreword to the 430-page assessment of educational quality issues, Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, stated that ‘although much debate surrounds attempts to define educational quality, solid common ground exists … Quality must be seen in light of how societies define the purpose of education’ (UNESCO, 2004: Foreword). He went on to explain that there seem to be two mutually agreed upon purposes for education in the world today: cognitive development of learners, and creative and emotional growth of learners to help them acquire values and attitudes for responsible citizenship. He also pointed out that ‘quality must pass the test of equity’ (UNESCO, 2004: Foreword), emphasising the importance of equity of opportunity to access and participate in education and learning. Relevant to the field of environmental education, is the inclusion of educational quality as a major thrust of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) (UNESCO, 2004).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182668 , vital:43852 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122756"
- Description: This edition of the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE) tackles a critical issue being debated across the world today, namely the question of educational quality and relevance. In 2005 the UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report entitled Education for All: The Quality Imperative (UNESCO, 2004) was published. This global monitoring report drew attention to issues of educational quality, and raised the problem that physical access to education does not necessarily lead to epistemological access to knowledge or to relevant education being offered to learners. In the foreword to the 430-page assessment of educational quality issues, Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, stated that ‘although much debate surrounds attempts to define educational quality, solid common ground exists … Quality must be seen in light of how societies define the purpose of education’ (UNESCO, 2004: Foreword). He went on to explain that there seem to be two mutually agreed upon purposes for education in the world today: cognitive development of learners, and creative and emotional growth of learners to help them acquire values and attitudes for responsible citizenship. He also pointed out that ‘quality must pass the test of equity’ (UNESCO, 2004: Foreword), emphasising the importance of equity of opportunity to access and participate in education and learning. Relevant to the field of environmental education, is the inclusion of educational quality as a major thrust of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD) (UNESCO, 2004).
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Links between the local trade in natural products, livelihoods and poverty alleviation in a semi-arid region of South Africa
- Shackleton, Sheona E, Campbell, Bruce, Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Shackleton, Charlie M
- Authors: Shackleton, Sheona E , Campbell, Bruce , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181246 , vital:43712 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.03.003"
- Description: Can the local commercialization of natural products contribute to reduced poverty and vulnerability? Commentary on this issue is mixed, with some observers being quite optimistic, while others hold a counterview. This paper explores the poverty alleviation potential of four products traded in Bushbuckridge, South Africa—traditional brooms, reed mats, woodcraft, and “marula” beer. While key in enhancing the livelihood security of the poorest households, these products were unlikely to provide a route out of poverty for most, although there were exceptions. Incomes often surpassed local wage rates, and some producers obtained returns equivalent to the minimum wage. Non-financial benefits such as the opportunity to work from home were highly rated, and the trade was found to represent a range of livelihood strategies both within and across products.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Shackleton, Sheona E , Campbell, Bruce , Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Shackleton, Charlie M
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/181246 , vital:43712 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2007.03.003"
- Description: Can the local commercialization of natural products contribute to reduced poverty and vulnerability? Commentary on this issue is mixed, with some observers being quite optimistic, while others hold a counterview. This paper explores the poverty alleviation potential of four products traded in Bushbuckridge, South Africa—traditional brooms, reed mats, woodcraft, and “marula” beer. While key in enhancing the livelihood security of the poorest households, these products were unlikely to provide a route out of poverty for most, although there were exceptions. Incomes often surpassed local wage rates, and some producers obtained returns equivalent to the minimum wage. Non-financial benefits such as the opportunity to work from home were highly rated, and the trade was found to represent a range of livelihood strategies both within and across products.
- Full Text:
Reading Conference recommendations in a wider context of social change
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373792 , vital:66723 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122783"
- Description: This short Viewpoint paper considers the role and value of conference recommendations in shaping the field of environmental education. It explores the social politics, and often contested nature, of conference recommendations and their institutional histories, arguing that the act of producing conference recommendations forms part of the practices of new social movements. The paper recommends historicising conference recommendations and OEcross readings‚ to consider changing discourses and new developments in the field. Accompanying the short Viewpoint paper, are two sets of recently produced conference recommendations, one from the 4th International Environmental Education Conference held in Ahmedabad, India, and the other from the 1st International Conference on Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities held in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373792 , vital:66723 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122783"
- Description: This short Viewpoint paper considers the role and value of conference recommendations in shaping the field of environmental education. It explores the social politics, and often contested nature, of conference recommendations and their institutional histories, arguing that the act of producing conference recommendations forms part of the practices of new social movements. The paper recommends historicising conference recommendations and OEcross readings‚ to consider changing discourses and new developments in the field. Accompanying the short Viewpoint paper, are two sets of recently produced conference recommendations, one from the 4th International Environmental Education Conference held in Ahmedabad, India, and the other from the 1st International Conference on Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities held in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Full Text:
Viewpoint: reading conference recommendations in a wider context of social change
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67411 , vital:29085 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122783
- Description: publisher version , This short Viewpoint paper considers the role and value of conference recommendations in shaping the field of environmental education. It explores the social politics, and often contested nature, of conference recommendations and their institutional histories, arguing that the act of producing conference recommendations forms part of the practices of new social movements. The paper recommends historicising conference recommendations and OEcross readings‚ to consider changing discourses and new developments in the field. Accompanying the short Viewpoint paper, are two sets of recently produced conference recommendations, one from the 4th International Environmental Education Conference held in Ahmedabad, India, and the other from the 1st International Conference on Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities held in Nairobi, Kenya.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2008
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67411 , vital:29085 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122783
- Description: publisher version , This short Viewpoint paper considers the role and value of conference recommendations in shaping the field of environmental education. It explores the social politics, and often contested nature, of conference recommendations and their institutional histories, arguing that the act of producing conference recommendations forms part of the practices of new social movements. The paper recommends historicising conference recommendations and OEcross readings‚ to consider changing discourses and new developments in the field. Accompanying the short Viewpoint paper, are two sets of recently produced conference recommendations, one from the 4th International Environmental Education Conference held in Ahmedabad, India, and the other from the 1st International Conference on Mainstreaming Environment and Sustainability in African Universities held in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Editorial, 2007
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, O’Donoghue, Rob B, Robottom, Ian
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O’Donoghue, Rob B , Robottom, Ian
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67345 , vital:29078 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122733
- Description: publisher version , The year 2007 is a significant year for environmental education. It marks 30 years since the first internationally agreed principles of environmental education were developed at Tbilisi, commonly known as the Tbilisi Principles. It is also the year in which human beings apparently are finally ‘waking up’ to the fact that human-induced environmental change is causing impacts which are infinitely complex and difficult to resolve. This year, through various highly publicised and politicised events, people have begun to recognise that it is getting hot on planet Earth, and that the associated social, economic and environmental costs are profoundly disturbing. The Stern Review and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change both firmly indicated that human-induced environmental change will threaten human economies and security in ways that are unprecedented in human history.
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- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O’Donoghue, Rob B , Robottom, Ian
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/67345 , vital:29078 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122733
- Description: publisher version , The year 2007 is a significant year for environmental education. It marks 30 years since the first internationally agreed principles of environmental education were developed at Tbilisi, commonly known as the Tbilisi Principles. It is also the year in which human beings apparently are finally ‘waking up’ to the fact that human-induced environmental change is causing impacts which are infinitely complex and difficult to resolve. This year, through various highly publicised and politicised events, people have begun to recognise that it is getting hot on planet Earth, and that the associated social, economic and environmental costs are profoundly disturbing. The Stern Review and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change both firmly indicated that human-induced environmental change will threaten human economies and security in ways that are unprecedented in human history.
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Exploring the practical adequacy of the normative framework guiding South Africa’s National Curriculum Statement
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Schudel, Ingrid J
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Schudel, Ingrid J
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294386 , vital:57217 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701284860"
- Description: This article examines the practical adequacy of the recent defining of a normative framework for the South African National Curriculum Statement that focuses on the relationship between human rights, social justice and a healthy environment. This politically framed and socially critical normative framework has developed in response to socio‐political and socio‐ecological histories in post‐apartheid curriculum transformation processes. The article critically considers the process of working with a normative framework in the defining of environmental education teaching and learning interactions, and seeks not only to explore the policy discourse critically, but also to explore what it is about the world that makes it work in different ways. Drawing on Sayer’s perspectives on the possibilities of enabling ‘situated universalism’ as a form of normative theory, and case‐based data from a teacher professional development programme in the Makana District (where the authors live and work), the article probes the relationship between the establishment of a ‘universalising’ normative framework to guide national curriculum, and situated engagements with this framework in/as democratic process. In this process it questions whether educators should adopt the ‘norms’ as presented by society and simply universalize and implement them as prescribed by curriculum statements, or whether educators should adopt the strategies of postmodernists and reduce normative frameworks to relations of power situated in particular contexts.
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- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Schudel, Ingrid J
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294386 , vital:57217 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701284860"
- Description: This article examines the practical adequacy of the recent defining of a normative framework for the South African National Curriculum Statement that focuses on the relationship between human rights, social justice and a healthy environment. This politically framed and socially critical normative framework has developed in response to socio‐political and socio‐ecological histories in post‐apartheid curriculum transformation processes. The article critically considers the process of working with a normative framework in the defining of environmental education teaching and learning interactions, and seeks not only to explore the policy discourse critically, but also to explore what it is about the world that makes it work in different ways. Drawing on Sayer’s perspectives on the possibilities of enabling ‘situated universalism’ as a form of normative theory, and case‐based data from a teacher professional development programme in the Makana District (where the authors live and work), the article probes the relationship between the establishment of a ‘universalising’ normative framework to guide national curriculum, and situated engagements with this framework in/as democratic process. In this process it questions whether educators should adopt the ‘norms’ as presented by society and simply universalize and implement them as prescribed by curriculum statements, or whether educators should adopt the strategies of postmodernists and reduce normative frameworks to relations of power situated in particular contexts.
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Learning in a Changing World
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, O'Donoghue, Rob B, Robottom, Ian
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Robottom, Ian
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182679 , vital:43853 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122733 "
- Description: The year 2007 is a significant year for environmental education. It marks 30 years since the first internationally agreed principles of environmental education were developed at Tbilisi, commonly known as the Tbilisi Principles. It is also the year in which human beings apparently are finally ‘waking up’ to the fact that human-induced environmental change is causing impacts which are infinitely complex and difficult to resolve. This year, through various highly publicised and politicised events, people have begun to recognise that it is getting hot on planet Earth, and that the associated social, economic and environmental costs are profoundly disturbing. The Stern Review and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change both firmly indicated that human-induced environmental change will threaten human economies and security in ways that are unprecedented in human history. Southern Africa, where this special edition of the EEASA Journal is being produced to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the existence of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa, and the hosting of the 4th World Environmental Education Congress, is one of the areas most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. More than 70% of the people in southern Africa live in rural areas, and depend directly on natural resources for their livelihood and food security, making environment (and environmental education processes) a central concern in development discussions in the region. Patterns of global inequality are pronounced in the region, which has some of the poorest countries in the world. Out of its 25-year history, EEASA and its members, along with colleagues around the world, continue to seek ways of educating and empowering people to successfully participate in resolving environmental issues and create more sustainable and socially just living patterns. In drawing attention to our constant need to learn how to improve our understandings of environmental education and learning as the world around us changes, the World Environmental Education Congress organising committee chose to profile the question of ‘Learning in a Changing World’, by making this the theme of the Congress.
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- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , O'Donoghue, Rob B , Robottom, Ian
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/182679 , vital:43853 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122733 "
- Description: The year 2007 is a significant year for environmental education. It marks 30 years since the first internationally agreed principles of environmental education were developed at Tbilisi, commonly known as the Tbilisi Principles. It is also the year in which human beings apparently are finally ‘waking up’ to the fact that human-induced environmental change is causing impacts which are infinitely complex and difficult to resolve. This year, through various highly publicised and politicised events, people have begun to recognise that it is getting hot on planet Earth, and that the associated social, economic and environmental costs are profoundly disturbing. The Stern Review and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change both firmly indicated that human-induced environmental change will threaten human economies and security in ways that are unprecedented in human history. Southern Africa, where this special edition of the EEASA Journal is being produced to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the existence of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa, and the hosting of the 4th World Environmental Education Congress, is one of the areas most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. More than 70% of the people in southern Africa live in rural areas, and depend directly on natural resources for their livelihood and food security, making environment (and environmental education processes) a central concern in development discussions in the region. Patterns of global inequality are pronounced in the region, which has some of the poorest countries in the world. Out of its 25-year history, EEASA and its members, along with colleagues around the world, continue to seek ways of educating and empowering people to successfully participate in resolving environmental issues and create more sustainable and socially just living patterns. In drawing attention to our constant need to learn how to improve our understandings of environmental education and learning as the world around us changes, the World Environmental Education Congress organising committee chose to profile the question of ‘Learning in a Changing World’, by making this the theme of the Congress.
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Reflecting on the 2007 World Environmental Education Congress
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183047 , vital:43907 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820700100207"
- Description: What motivates more than 800 people from 101 countries around the world to meet at a World Environmental Education Congress? And how does one make the most of such an incredible gathering of people, cultures, thoughts and minds? What did people learn and was it worthwhile? These are just some of the questions that have been chasing through my mind in the weeks following the fourth World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa, in July 2007. This short paper shares some preliminary reflections on the 2007 WEEC event, noting that in-depth analyses will only become possible as time passes.
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- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/183047 , vital:43907 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820700100207"
- Description: What motivates more than 800 people from 101 countries around the world to meet at a World Environmental Education Congress? And how does one make the most of such an incredible gathering of people, cultures, thoughts and minds? What did people learn and was it worthwhile? These are just some of the questions that have been chasing through my mind in the weeks following the fourth World Environmental Education Congress held in Durban, South Africa, in July 2007. This short paper shares some preliminary reflections on the 2007 WEEC event, noting that in-depth analyses will only become possible as time passes.
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Rhodes University EE and Sustainability Unit
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Schudel, Ingrid J
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Schudel, Ingrid J
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294423 , vital:57220 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820700100127"
- Description: In the early 1990s, in response to the emphasis laid on environment and development issues by the new South African Constitution, Rhodes University undertook several initiatives such as establishing the first Chair of Environmental Education (EE) in Africa. Another important initiative was the introduction of an open-entry participatory course for environmental educators. Owing to its flexible format and practice-based methodology, the course gained rapid popularity, necessitating the setting up of a Service Centre to help meet the increased demand. The Chair and the Service Centre have been providing a range of short courses in environment and sustainability education to professionals, and are today widely known as the Rhodes University Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit (RUEESU). The Unit offers PhD and Masters level programmes in EE, encourages meaningful research in key thematic areas, and is actively involved in publishing, and policy transformation. It also endeavours to define the role of Universities in enabling sustainability education.
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- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Schudel, Ingrid J
- Date: 2007
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/294423 , vital:57220 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097340820700100127"
- Description: In the early 1990s, in response to the emphasis laid on environment and development issues by the new South African Constitution, Rhodes University undertook several initiatives such as establishing the first Chair of Environmental Education (EE) in Africa. Another important initiative was the introduction of an open-entry participatory course for environmental educators. Owing to its flexible format and practice-based methodology, the course gained rapid popularity, necessitating the setting up of a Service Centre to help meet the increased demand. The Chair and the Service Centre have been providing a range of short courses in environment and sustainability education to professionals, and are today widely known as the Rhodes University Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit (RUEESU). The Unit offers PhD and Masters level programmes in EE, encourages meaningful research in key thematic areas, and is actively involved in publishing, and policy transformation. It also endeavours to define the role of Universities in enabling sustainability education.
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Think Piece : an opening dialogue with Think Pieces and feature articles on learning in a changing world in this journal
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59602 , vital:27630 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122734
- Description: From Conclusion:This opening Think Piece invites you into such a dialogue, with this journal, its words and flows of meaning, and with the World Environmental Education Congress, its words and flows of meaning. Dialogue, as explained by Bohm, and as illustrated in the thought experiments in this paper, is a process of creatively and experimentally seeking out meaning and coherence through listening, and through deeper explorations of the tacit, implicate order. It is also a free process, where you as individual are invited to seek out the relations between your thoughts and the collective. Welcome to the process.
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- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: article , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59602 , vital:27630 , https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/122734
- Description: From Conclusion:This opening Think Piece invites you into such a dialogue, with this journal, its words and flows of meaning, and with the World Environmental Education Congress, its words and flows of meaning. Dialogue, as explained by Bohm, and as illustrated in the thought experiments in this paper, is a process of creatively and experimentally seeking out meaning and coherence through listening, and through deeper explorations of the tacit, implicate order. It is also a free process, where you as individual are invited to seek out the relations between your thoughts and the collective. Welcome to the process.
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Translation processes in the design of an education for sustainable development innovations course for universities in Africa
- Lotz-Sisitka, Heila, Lupele, Justin, Ogbuigwe, Akpezi
- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Lupele, Justin , Ogbuigwe, Akpezi
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127213 , vital:35978 , https://10.1080/02607470701259440
- Description: This paper traces the translation processes associated with the mobilization of resources and human agency in the development of a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Innovations Course for universities in Africa. University teachers are often neglected in teacher education initiatives. There are few formal professional development opportunities available for university teachers given the traditionally established hierarchy in the higher education sector as university teachers are normally the ones offering professional development to others. The paper explores how a participatory, deliberative translation process has served to provide professional development and professional exchange opportunities for university teachers which are non‐traditional and responsive to diversity, history, context and risk. The emergence of the modern African university is essentially a post‐independence (post‐1960s) phenomenon, with a few earlier African universities being colonially structured, controlled and inspired. Through a short historical overview, we introduce the African university landscape and some of its contemporary contextual and educational challenges. We then describe the process of deliberation that took place amongst university teachers from 23 African countries to initiate and establish the ESD Innovations Course. The paper concludes by arguing for open and participatory approaches in ESD teacher education course design, if we are to support university teachers (including teacher educators) to engage in mainstreaming environment and sustainability questions in higher education. The paper draws on the translation model provided by Latour in his actor network theory to describe and explain the deliberative translation process in the UNEP ESD Innovations Course. In doing this, it illuminates the possibilities of such a deliberative translation process for university teacher education. It also points to limitations encountered in applying this framework to this analysis, opening new vantage points for research of this nature in teacher education.
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- Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Lupele, Justin , Ogbuigwe, Akpezi
- Date: 2007
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/127213 , vital:35978 , https://10.1080/02607470701259440
- Description: This paper traces the translation processes associated with the mobilization of resources and human agency in the development of a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Innovations Course for universities in Africa. University teachers are often neglected in teacher education initiatives. There are few formal professional development opportunities available for university teachers given the traditionally established hierarchy in the higher education sector as university teachers are normally the ones offering professional development to others. The paper explores how a participatory, deliberative translation process has served to provide professional development and professional exchange opportunities for university teachers which are non‐traditional and responsive to diversity, history, context and risk. The emergence of the modern African university is essentially a post‐independence (post‐1960s) phenomenon, with a few earlier African universities being colonially structured, controlled and inspired. Through a short historical overview, we introduce the African university landscape and some of its contemporary contextual and educational challenges. We then describe the process of deliberation that took place amongst university teachers from 23 African countries to initiate and establish the ESD Innovations Course. The paper concludes by arguing for open and participatory approaches in ESD teacher education course design, if we are to support university teachers (including teacher educators) to engage in mainstreaming environment and sustainability questions in higher education. The paper draws on the translation model provided by Latour in his actor network theory to describe and explain the deliberative translation process in the UNEP ESD Innovations Course. In doing this, it illuminates the possibilities of such a deliberative translation process for university teacher education. It also points to limitations encountered in applying this framework to this analysis, opening new vantage points for research of this nature in teacher education.
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